Out Now: MAXCAP Working Paper No. 33

The MAXCAP Working Paper No. 33 “Local Government Debt and EU Funds in the Eastern Member States: The Cases of Hungary and Poland“ by Gergő Medve-Bálint and Dorothee Bohle has been published. You can download the Working Paper here.

The paper investigates whether local debt in East Central Europe is associated with the local government’s participation in European Union (EU)-funded projects. Drawing on data from Hungary and Poland, the authors find that in both countries the level of local government indebtedness is positively related to the local government’s performance in securing EU funds. In other words, being successful at attaining EU-funded projects leads to higher levels of local debt, other things being equal. This may undermine local finances and increase the financial vulnerability and dependence of local governments. The empirical evidence put forward in this paper is therefore in stark contrast with one of the main ambitions of the EU’s Cohesion Policy, which is to empower the local level relative to the central state.

It is the objective of the MAXCAP Working Paper Series to disseminate the research results of the research consortium to a wide audience, including the academia as well as the general public. Thus, all Working Papers can be downloaded free of charge from our website.

Date:

Tue, 2016-09-06 12:15

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 320115.

About MAXCAP

MAXCAP features a nine-partner consortium of academic, policy, dissemination and management excellence that will create new and strengthen existing links within and between the academic and the policy world on matters relating to the current and future enlargement of the EU.